Officer shakedowns

necessary part of this profession, I’m new to this career w/ only 4.5 yeas but there have already been multiple officer to inmate associations that have endangered my life as well as the lives of my fellow officers, and other staff. I don’t like it but I’ll do it and let others thoroughly inspect my work bag for possible contraband. If I have something in it that I shouldn’t then shame on me and I’ll take my discipline to hopefully learn my lesson and not do it in the future.

Everybody is subject to shake down, we use a randamizer search button all staff must push upon entry into the prison. You get red, you get searched. All bags go through the xray machine regardless whether you hit red or not. I hate dirty staff, puts everyone at risk.

I had over 26 years at my prison and bought some military time to get my full service 30 year retirement. All my time was in Maximum security. I was still learning when I retired. You never stop learning, you either continue to learn and sharpen your level of alert and observation or you give up and become a victim.

Commander lately to many of these recruits coming out of the academy think they know everything.Basically old saying “Talked the talk and walk the talk”.I emphases the importance of doing your job.Talk is cheap.
Luckily these recruit are few,the rest do their job.i even make it a point to let them know I am always learning.i am there to help not belittle you or disrespect you

Exactly right Canusxiii. Too many people come into corrections and feel a need to be the man. Simple common sense goes along way. I never felt the need to exert my Authority until the situation warranted that. I never came to work and felt compelled to escalate an Inmate’s anger or aggressiveness. If they were doing what they were supposed to do, that was a good day. If I had an Inmate who was being a little louder than the rest, I would talk to him and him only, off to the side if necessary. No need to front him off in front of his buddies. That is purely disrespectful and the Inmate will act out to save face. I found that tactic almost always worked. There are some Inmates that no matter how you try to treat them with respect, they will act out anyway. Then you do what you have to do to control the situation.

True commander,is my job to diffuse the situation.It could be something stupid,arguing over what they want to watch on tv or horse playing.Won’t know until you confront them.A simple question or a plain “knock it off”.
Newbies shouldn’t assumed is no big deal,or courtline won’t back the charge,downgraded to 4 hours extra work…Like I was taught when I came in,is our job to prevent what can happened….

In Ohio they have went to a response to resistance continuum. Staff are trained each year to follow the chart. It is self explanatory and has few gray areas. If an Inmate starts losing his/her temper, order them to lock up. If they refuse the order and you are not being physically threatened, call a supervisor. If you feel threatened and have a radio, call for assistance. If you don’t have a radio, hit your alarm, back away from the Inmate to allow yourself more room to defend yourself, and get ready to rumble.

Remenber a movie.“Thin Blue Line”.I will be firm fair and consistent but you cross that line,is different now….new way of doing thing ……why use of force when the inmate lost his temper…didn’t realized he needed a hugged…cynical after 9 years,be safe.

The State wouldn’t allow us to charge for toilet paper although an adjoining county did (25 cents). They have been putting one roll in a week then doing random cell searches taking extra rolls. In the past the Pod inmates were given napkins for lunch and dinner, now they get paper towels (very thin by the way).

Yeah now the funny thing is they are trying to push more security measures on the whole staff instead of simply searching us all till they get the dirty ones. I am sure if they search all the staff with a fine toothed comb contraband wouldn’t be coming from the staff nearly as much.

Ironic enough we actually had one of those rooms at my old prison. Without the floodlights and pole of course. Don’t think I even seen it get used though. Maybe a disco ball and a few lava lamps would of made it more appealing.

I think they should random strip staff just like inmate. I am calling all staff anyone from the governor to us lowly surds. In fact they should have a room in every entrance building just for it. I wonder if they would put some lights and a pole in there too…….. I could put on one hell of a show. But joking aside. I don’t worry about any of it the only “contraband” I own is a mush fake screw driver I took from an inmate that I use to open up light sockets and switch boxes which is where I find all the good stuff. So if and when I am the chosen one. I got nothing to worry about.

Dirty staff are caught almost as much as visitors. Sorry, but when your found passing stuff off, inside the fence with contraband, or snitched out by some inmate thats all the proof they need. Even if they can’t make a conveance charge stick, they still violated policies by even having it inside. That case isn’t usually enough to prosecute but its still grounds for termination. In the words of one of my captains “If your that weak, quit now and go work somewhere else before something bad happens”.

I have no tolerance for officers who bring in contraband. We have experienced a few who got caught (guess who turned them in-the inmate). One of them was arrested then sent to a separate county jail for six months.

That Officer should not only be fired he/she should be prosecuted. It is not enough to take their job. Doesn’t send the right message. If you knew even for bringing in tobacco, that you might do jail time, that would stop the person who has somewhat of a conscious. Not everyone but, it would stop a few.

Absolutely right Tanker and Commander. Shakedowns should be done every day of the year randomly. We would seldom shake down an entire floor because the inmates in the linear section could holler up the catwalk to the next floor warning them. Thus we would shake down one block or two on a floor then move to a Pod so there was more of a surprise. The other suggestion is to turn down the volume on your radio so they don’t hear you coming around the corner of the block or tier. We did start using the CERT team shakedown method for the linear section of the jail. All the COs would enter the block telling every inmate to get out of the cell face the steel bars placing both hands on the bars. There is absolutely no tolerance for inmates talking at all. The first inmate that does is immediately removed to the booking room or secured cell away from the unit. Other suggestions are to always wear puncture proof gloves (if allowed) or double up on latex gloves in case there is a sharp needle or object hidden in the walls or bed areas. Contraband that is found should be written up on an incident report against the inmates who are in the cell. We also confiscate any gang materials and extra books, newspapers, magazines, TV channel changers.

I remember numerous times that someone would find out about a shakedown and call all their buddies at home. I caught an Officer doing this. I didn’t write him up, I made him apologize at roll call the next day for helping staff bring in contraband. What people don’t understand is this: It is not your buddy carrying in a newspaper or a dip of snuff for later (we are tobacco free), if that is all that happened, I could live with that, it is the idiot bringing in tobacco and drugs that scare the hell out of me. Not fun fighting an inmate stoned on heroin or oxy. No fun at all.

They should do more random shakedowns with some of the crap being brought in. However this is one case where the grapevine hampers more then it helps anyonw who was going to bring stuff into inmates dump the contraband, call offs, etc and not get caught.

Everyone coming into LUC passes through the metal detector. No exceptions. Have to have a photo ID. I remember an Officer making the Deputy Warden of Ops go back to his car for his ID. Pissed him off. Me and him never seen eye to eye. So, as usual, I met up with him and ask him why he didn’t tell my Officer good job for doing his job. He mumbled something and walked away. I typed a letter up for the Officers file, a written ATTABOY and had the DWO sign it. Made my day.